Introduction: The purpose of this research is to assess the mean change in A1C associated with patients who declined a pharmacy-led diabetes management program and to evaluate effects of predictor variables on the odds of achieving improved A1C in these patients.
Study design: Retrospective, single-center, single-group, cohort study.
Methods: Patients 18 years or older with uncontrolled type 2 diabetes (defined as A1C ≥ 9%) who declined pharmacy-led diabetes management services were included in the study. The primary outcome of the study was to assess the mean change in A1C from time of phone call offering pharmacy management services (initial) to last observed A1C (final recorded A1C).
Results: A total of 91 patients were included, 46 males and 45 females. The significant reduction in the mean change from baseline A1C to the final measured A1C was -0.59 (95% CI, -0.9327% to -0.2447%, P-value = 0.0010). This resulted in 8.79% of patients' final A1C falling into the range of < 7%.
Conclusion: Our study found a paradoxical reduction in A1C among patients who declined pharmacy-led diabetes management services, however, our study is limited by having no comparison group. Further research needs to be conducted to identify correlations between characteristics of patients declining diabetes management services in order to assist with identifying patient-specific methods for improving patient outcomes.
Keywords: comorbidities; diabetes mellitus; pharmacist intervention; quality of life.